Happy Easter Weekend

 Although I don't observe Easter, J does and so we will be celebrating with his family this weekend.  To send a completely cute and original Easter card, check out this blog.  In addition to getting to decorate eggs, which sounds so fun to me, it's delightfully adorable and quirky.  Enjoy!

And have a wonderful weekend!

Let the Sun Shine

I'm not sure if it's the upcoming arrival of summer or the influence of Kate Spade's color of the month for March (I'm leaning toward the latter as summer in Florida means excessive humidity, mosquitoes, and hurricanes - hardly the types of things that provoke "sunshine-y" feelings) but I've had an affinity for all things yellow lately.  The bright cheerful color has been on my radar when it comes to clothes, shoes, and a multitude of other random items.  Here are a few things that have caught my eye:

Cardigan | Camisole | Blouse | Dress

I absolutely LOVE the cardigan.  And I've been eyeing the camisole and blouse for a while too.  It's probably good thing J won't let me buy anything until after my birthday...

Wellies | Pumps | Sandals

I've been wanting a pair of wellies for quite some time now, but hadn't been able to splurge on the expensive Hunter pair I was contemplating.  This option is much more affordable and still looks very well made!

Purse | Butter Dish | Tea Towel

I had been lusting over this purse in orange originally, but then switched my affections to the yellow as I feel it would go with more in my wardrobe.  The owl butter dish is just fantastic, though it probably wouldn't actually be used to house butter, and the saying on the tea towel seems so much better than just plain lemonade!

Atlas Shrugged

By chance while looking through my Fandango app last weekend I came across a listing for Atlas Shrugged.  They're making a movie out of one of my favorite books??? How did I not hear about this sooner!?!?  I quickly looked up the trailer and sure enough, it seems to be a modern take of the novel and fairly true, from what I can tell, to the plot.  In telling J about it, he confessed that though I have told him many times to read the book that he's never really had much of an inclination to do so.  I'm trying to catch him up on it as much as possible in hopes of reeling him into it and getting him to see the movie with me.  I'm so excited!

p.s. Note to film studio - what happened to promoting movies???

Happy Passover!

Passover is the holiday in which we celebrate the exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt after the plagues passed them over.  Since the first night of the eight day holiday was mid-week I was unable to celebrate the Seder with my family in south Florida.  However, last night I celebrated Passover by making a modified version of my grandma's chicken soup with matzo balls and a batch of homemade macaroons.  It was so yummy, here are the recipes:

Chicken Soup
- 1 whole chicken (I get the kind that's already pre-cut into breasts, wings, etc)
- 2 32 oz cartons of chicken broth - I used this organic, low sodium, gluten free kind
- 6 cups of water
- 1 medium diced onion
- 4 parsnips medium diced
- 4 carrots medium diced
- 3 stalks of celery, medium dice
- 1 clove of garlic, chopped
- 1 large handful of chopped fresh parsley
- 1 handful chopped fresh dill
- kosher salt
- fresh ground pepper
- onion powder
- garlic powder

Rinse the chicken and place in a large stock pot with 6 cups of chicken broth and 6 cups of water.  Start heating this on high while you dice and add the vegetables and herbs.  Add two large pinches of salt and approximately a teaspoon of onion and garlic powder.  Bring to a boil and then cover and let simmer for 1 and 1/2 hours.

Once you have started to simmer the soup, mix the ingredients for the matzo balls (I follow the directions on the box but substitute 3 egg whites for the 2 eggs and I add a large pinch of both salt and pepper to mine) and let sit on the counter.  When there is about 40 minutes left on the soup, start the water for the matzo balls.  When it comes to a rolling boil, roll the balls into about 1 inch rounds and drop in and let cook for about 30 minutes.

At this point, remove the chicken from the soup and remove the meat from the bones.  Chop into bite size pieces and return the meat to the soup (I usually only chop about 1/2 of the chicken and leave the rest out for other meals).  Check the seasoning of the soup now as well.  I usually add more salt, more onion and garlic powders, and about a tsp of pepper at this point.  Season to taste then add the matzo balls and serve!

I got the Coconut Macaroon recipe from Ina Garten on the food network.  They are ridiculously easy to make and super delicious.  You can find the recipe here.

Super Productive Weekend

J decided that since we've been in reorganization mode that we should tackle our backyard.  Until this weekend we never spent time in the backyard other than to store the kayaks and take out recycling.  And even then we did it as quickly as possible because, to be frank, we were scared of walking around back there amongst the weeds and layers of dead leaves, not knowing what animals may be lurking underneath (our big fear is snakes, which we have seen in our neighborhood before).  So we went on a major overhaul this weekend, sweeping the patio of all of the accumulated grime, converting a rusty, dirty, unused grill stand into an outdoor food station, installing pavers next to the patio where the gutters deposit all of their water and create a huge dirt divot, creating a rock covered container garden area, and replacing the layers of leaves with fresh topsoil and grass seed.  Until the garden and grass start growing, it's not quite picture-worthy yet, but it is a HUGE improvement over what we previously had.  And we can't wait until we can start using home grown herbs in our cooking!

In addition, J is expecting friends at our place in two weeks for the launch, so we've started to tidy up the odds and ends left from our major indoor overhaul over the last couple of weekends.  I spent Saturday morning working on the kitchen and we now have surfaces that are actually usable in food preparations, and we've finally hung the closet hooks and hallway shelves that have been waiting around for us.  Overall a hugely productive weekend!  Next step: clean up the piles of laundry that have accumulated over the past few weeks while we've been working on everything else...

Decorating Idol

I didn't actually watch HGTV's Design Star reality show, but I am completely, 100% in love with the stylist who wound up winning.  Emily Henderson is my dream stylist - I idolize her.  I love each and every room she designs on her new HGTV show Secrets From a Stylist.  It is on on Saturdays on HGTV at 9:00 pm ET - I highly recommend you watch!  They play some reruns of her past rooms over the course of the week as well, so look those up too.  All are incredible, I swear.  She also has a blog where she shares her personal thoughts and sources for each design - also well worth a look.

This is a photo from Emily's own house.  She always finds the most incredible couches.

The creator of the TV show Glee is a close personal friend of Emily's and also her first show design make-over.  This was my favorite part of this design, a tiny, cozy nook of a bedroom.

Like I said above, she finds absolutely amazing couches.  How incredibly gorgeous is this one!?!?

I'm also a big fan of how she mixes patterns and styles.  This room was a huge mish mash of patterns, but it worked.  And she has industrial vintage mixed with mid century modern mixed with modern.  Fantastic.

(all photos from Emily's blog)

Beach Bound

My mom worships the sun and turns a lovely golden tan within minutes. I however, was not blessed with these genes.  I am pale and turn a painful shade of pink when I spend too much time outdoors.  Last time I went to the beach my spray sunscreen was partially blown away by the wind and I wound up with red zebra stripes on my legs that unfortunately have not completely gone away yet.  Despite my lack of love for the skin effects brought on by our closest star, I have been swept up by the warm weather and am currently craving a new swim suit.    I typically prefer one piece suits (they have a retro, sophisticated feel that I like), but this season some incredible tribal inspired bikinis have also caught my attention.  My solution to this sunburn vs seasonal clothing dilemma will be a floppy straw hat, sunglasses, and an umbrella.  Here's what's on my radar:

purple halter - gray cross back - mint halter - red halter - blue one shoulder

I actually already have the gray one and I love the way it sucks me in.  I have worn it so much it's time for a replacement.  And I just cannot resist the seahorse pattern on the blue option. 

Here are the absolutely gorgeous bikinis that I'm seriously tempted by, even though they'd look ridiculous with my pasty white torso (since I always wear one-pieces).  Both are by Mara Hoffman.

blue jungle print - black ethnic embroidery

And finally, something to protect me from the sun's scorching rays:

hat - sunglasses - dress

Fish Fry

It has always seemed like far too much work to actually fry my own foods and therefore I never have - until last night.  J and I saw a show hosted by Tyler Florence about fish and chips, which used rice flour.  Since it looked absolutely delicious on the show and rice flour is definitely allowed (and happened to be on hand) per my elimination diet we decided to give it a try.  We didn't do the chips part, just the fish, and we served it with a side of celery root and sunchoke garlic mash and a salad.

YUM!!!  The fish was crispy and flaky and just absolutely delicious.  Try the recipe here (on the show he used rice flour for the whole recipe, not all purpose, which is what we did too)